Wednesday, May 28, 2008

For Memorial Day we went to the zoo with three nieces and a newphew. It was lots of fun. The kids are great, but I am still definitely not ready to have five children. Haha. We love hanging out with them though. Charlie couldn't get enough of his cousins!

Charlie in his pouch, taking it all in. Kelsey, the scary gorilla man! Kaylin, Kelsey, Katie, Greg, Charlie, and Courtney. And a bronze gorilla.

Kelsey and Courtney couldn't take enough pictures and so we have a picture of just about every single animal we saw. This creepy snake picture is courtesy of one of them. This sign in the petting zoo made me laugh. Sometimes I feel this way a little bit. Katie, Rachel, Kaylin, and Charlie in the petting zoo.

How did mothers get anything done before Baby Einstein was invented?He loves those videos. I love the few minutes they give me to do the laundry, dishes, and other housework plus the work I do for my job from home. The lady who invented these things should get a Nobel Peace Prize.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

On Friday night, we went to Murrieta Valley High School's Variety Show. Spencer was in two numbers; the first one was "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast.The picture quality isn't perfect because Spencer was far away and we had to zoom to 16x, but there he is, being a waiter, I guess.His little dance (the variety show numbers are choreographed) was completely precious. We are going to try and get him to do it for us again so we can get post it on You Tube and make him famous. We couldn't get a picture of him singing "Joyful Joyful" from Sister Act 2 because he hid way in the back behind a bunch of other students, but here he is in his costume. Spencer is very fond of the short shorts. Selina joined us; here are Selina and I remembering the olden days. Selina and her number one man.

We really had fun and Charlie did not make a PEEP of sound. What a good boy! Our favorite song was one that a couple of students wrote. Wow!

Stacy and I got to go up on the stage for the last number with the Chamber Choir (every year the last song is "Kiss Him Goodbye" and they have the Chamber Alum join in) but we were standing in the back, so no pictures survive. I was the oldest one there (on stage), which was slightly stressful. No one else was from my graduating class either. Am I getting old?! Greg always says "We aren't old, we just live old lives." Haha.

We got to visit with Mr. Byun, the former choir teacher, for a few minutes, which was really fun. He taught Ken, me, and Stacy in his years in Murrieta, Ken and I had his wife for English, and Stacy and I both have babysat for him many times, so it was great to visit. MVHS Choir really misses him!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

This weekend, we went to Utah! Charlie's first roadtrip. We got a lot of work done on the house and got to visit quite a few people, but tragically did not get to stay for church because I got fairly sick. I generally get a little sick while on vacation (just changing schedules and such) but I guess the normal sickness compounded with a baby and breastfeeding and the like just made it worse. So, we decided to leave Saturday night instead. Now we need to go back and do a little more visiting, but we don't mind. We love Utah!

Here are a few pictures from our adventure...

Charlie getting buckled in for the trip. He's smiling now, but a few hours in the car changed his tune...We got to visit with the Rockwells twice, which was great fun. We went on the "Gallery Walk" in Salt Lake where we walked through several small independent-type art galleries, and then ate the most delicious pizza ever. Anyone who knows me well knows how I dislike pizza, but this should not even be classified in the same category. The owner of the restaurant served his mission in Italy (so did Greg R., so that is why he is so fond of the authenticity) and his restaurant is certified by some board of pizza commissioners in Naples, Italy. Seriously! They have certain requirements to get certified and there are only two in the United States. It was SO divine!We took the babies with us, so now they are great friends.Charlie and Kelly. This picture totally kills me. Charlie has his eyes wide like there is something wrong with him (like in School of Rock...he is ready to raise his goblet of rock) and Kelly is partying. Charlie says "No, Kelly, I am the only one who parties!" (which he learned from Uncle Spencer.) We got to visit with Brittney and Launa and Porter. Launa and Charlie were pretty interested in figuring out who the other baby was, but they were never very happy at the same time, so most of the pictures do not survive the blog cut. Brittney and Launa, Charlie and Rachel. Launa is almost a year old and a total sweetheart!Rachel got to visit Dani, for quite a while, which was fun. We have been friends since middle school and we were roommates before I got married and Dani went on a mission. Charlie had so much fun getting held by all his new friends.

We will definitely be returning to Utah again soon, to see more of our great friends!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Monday, May 5, 2008

Yesterday was little Charlie's baby blessing. Since I don't have all the pictures yet, I will not do the post about it yet, but I did want to report that it was really wonderful. We had 48 people come to see his blessing, which we have decided must be some kind of record. We love all of our family and friends who came. There are a couple of family pictures that I posted last night from the occasion, so scroll down to see them. He was so cute in his little whites.

Today, Charlie had his two month appointment. The child is off the charts in weight and head size and in the 75th percentile of length. It is pretty funny, they do a little graph that shows the 25th, 50th and 99th percentile of everything and then they have your baby represented by a little "X." Charlie's "X's" were way up in outer space. He is 16.2 pounds! Also 23.5 inches and his head was like 16 cm or something like that. I have forgotten exactly what his head size was.

He also got three shots!! He cried when he got the shots, and it made mommy cry too. But only a tiny bit, so it isn't too embarrassing. He has been good today, but cried every time mommy put him down. He just wants to be held all day today!! The only other problem is that he is refusing to nurse, so I have had to pump and bottle feed him. Oh, well. At least he has been generally in a good mood.

I have a lot of pictures on my camera and so there is a little bit of catching up to do. Some are from fun things we've done, and others are just too cute to pass by.

One of the funniest things about babies is how they are awake...And then, they are suddenly asleep. A couple of weeks ago we went to a "High School" dance and so Greg had to pull out some of the weird thrift store clothes he used to wear.... You can't see here, but there are elbow patches on that jacket. Yikes.

Charlie's date, Jillian. We brought him to the dance with us and lots of ladies wanted to dance with him. =)Uncle Spencer visited with us several days last week. Charlie and Spencer are great friends. I am fond of this shirt. It is so funny! It is one of the "Red" campaign shirts from the Gap. The proceds go to help children in Africa who are orphaned by AIDS and all the shirts say a word that have the letters RED in them. Some of the shirts say "Hammered" or "Inspired" or things like that. Charlie's says "Diapered." So cute!

One of the guys that served with Greg in the MTC and Paraguay came and visited us last Sunday. We had lots of fun hanging out with Jeff!We got to chat with him in Spanish too, which was fun. It was Jeff's first visit to California and we were glad he got to come see us for a little while!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Charlie was blessed today. We had a wonderful time. Tons of family were able to come and we had a big dinner party afterward. There are lots fun pictures, but I don't have them all yet. I did want to post our little family pictures though, so here are a couple. Charlie was an angel during the blessing; not a single complaint.